This particular strain of MRSA must be unusually virulent and unique if it is shutting down these schools. This is quite peculiar. I’d like to hear their reasoning.
We are seeing 60% MRSA in our skin abscesses — affecting all walks of life (rich, poor, educated, etc) as well as all ages, including infants. It is definitely an epidemic but we would have to shut down our whole state if we followed Virginia’s example. Currently, no studies have shown successful methods to eradicate MRSA in people who have had MRSA or who are colonized with it.
Their reasoning? One word only: liability.
Nothing matters more than revenue to school boards.
I wonder if good old-fashioned sulfa drugs are an option...
I don't necessarily agree that this is a new, more virulent strain of S. aureus. I think the answer is more simple, and can be presented in the form of a question: When was the last time you met a kid who practiced decent hygiene?
I would wager that if we shut every school in America down for a month and sanitize the everlovin' crap out of them- I mean, make them as sterile as an operating room- maybe one week after the kids and faculty/staff come back in, the places would be as filthy as before. Why? Because kids are nasty, unhygienic, wipe-snot-on-the-sleeve, pee-in-the-playground-equipment, spit-on-the-floor, not-wash-hands-after-wiping-butt beasts. And most adults are, too.
As for eradiciating MRSA, you are of course right on the money. MRSA just plain sucks.
>I’d like to hear their reasoning.<
The night Ashton passed away, some students began a campaign through cell phone text messages and email to meet outside the school the next morning in a prayer session/protest. From what I heard, some kids got a bit out of hand when the principle tried to talk to them. Other kids told the protesters that cussing out the administrators did not honor Ashton’s memory. There was a lot of anguish and emotion. Ashton has a number of cousins at that school, and he was well-liked by just about everyone.
The students demanded that something be done to disinfect the school. Some parents threatened to keep kids home until something was done. The school system responded with the shutdown for disinfection.
I don’t blame the school. I think the school and the community has been blindsided to some degree by a disease most had never heard of until very recently.